TEMECULA: City officials more optimistic about new hospital

UHS president personally assures councilmen project will be built on city's approved timeline

There's a new feeling of optimism in Temecula about the
long-gestating hospital planned for the southern part of the
city.

City officials said Wednesday morning during a conference call
that their upbeat outlook is the result of verbal assurances
offered by Marc Miller, president of Pennsylvania-based Universal
Health Services.

Miller met with Councilmen Jeff Comerchero and Mike Naggar at
City Hall earlier that morning and gave them his word that the
company is committed to starting work on the hospital this
summer.

"We can see the finish line," Miller said during the conference
call.

Before breaking that finish line tape ---- or breaking ground at
the 35-acre vacant parcel on Temecula Parkway ---- a few items have
yet to be checked off the project's "to do" list.

One involves a corporate guarantee to complete the hospital
according to the city's timeline, which the city has asked
Universal to provide essentially as a written contract.

Universal proposed the guarantee as a substitute for posting a
$5 million completion security bond that the City Council had
mandated when it approved Universal's new hospital plans in
February.

The revised plans call for the construction of a 140-bed
hospital tower in the early phases of the project, which ultimately
would include a second tower that would bring the total number of
beds up to 230, a cancer center, a fitness center and medical
offices.

Universal, corporate parent of the company that runs hospitals
in Murrieta and Wildomar, has been talking about building a
hospital in Temecula for six years, a time frame that has seen the
Loma Linda University Medical Center -- Murrieta hospital go from
the planning stages to completion.

"There's a history here. There's been a lot of challenges. But
for him (Miller) to come down here from Pennsylvania and give us
his personal guarantee this project is moving forward ... I believe
him and I'm willing to take him at his word," Naggar said.

In the background of the call, Miller could be heard saying,
"Absolutely. Absolutely."

Asked about the status of the corporate guarantee, Miller said
he recently received a revised version from the Temecula city
attorney's office.

"I have not had a chance to read it yet," he said, adding that
based on what he's been told there should be no significant
problems. "It should be complete in the next couple of days."

Comerchero and Naggar said they had no problem with Universal
swapping out the bond for the guarantee. They added that, in some
respects, a guarantee is stronger than a bond.

Had Universal posted the bond and then failed to build a
hospital, the city would have had to try and secure the $5 million
from the bond company, a process that Naggar said is not always
simple.

With the guarantee in place, the city would get $5 million from
Universal for infrastructure improvements if the company did not
proceed according to the city's timeline.

The other outstanding item on the "to-do list" involves securing
a city grading permit as well as the approval of various state
agencies to allow grading at the site, land just west of the
intersection of Margarita Road and Temecula Parkway.

"We feel very confident the project will be moving forward
pretty swiftly," Miller said, adding that work could start in a
couple of months. "We're ready to go when we get the word."

Before ending the conference call, Miller said the Temecula
hospital will be managed by Universal Health Services and not
Southwest Healthcare System, a subsidiary of Universal Health
Services that runs hospitals in Murrieta and Wildomar.

Those hospitals have had their share of problems with state
regulators, and they have been publicly slammed by Temecula
residents, who expressed concerns about the quality of care they
provide.

Asked whether Universal was separating the Temecula hospital
because of branding problems or the reputation of Southwest
Healthcare, Miller said Universal never intended for the Temecula
hospital to be managed by Southwest Healthcare.

In the past few years, Southwest Healthcare officials have been
fielding questions about the project and negotiating with city and
state officials, but Miller said that was always meant to be a
temporary situation.

"Southwest management staff will not be overseeing this
hospital," he said. That decision, he added, should not be
construed as a negative reflection on that management staff, but as
a desire by Universal to make the Temecula hospital stand on its
own.